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From Field to Fork: The foreign and domestic food chain

Bananas for export were sorted on the Bananera El Esfuerzo farm in Costa Rica in July 2008. Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters

A laborer shovels apples at a juice factory in Gaizhou, China. Sixty percent of apple juice sold in the US is imported from China. Reuters

The items in a full shopping cart at Costco in Everett, Mass., could each be a chapter in the story of the epic journey from field to fork taken by much of today’s food. It is an increasingly complex path that makes it difficult to guarantee safe consumption. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Workers work with fruit in front of wholesalers, before heading towards markets in Sao Paulo February, 2013. Consumer food prices rose 1.97 percent, compared with an increase of 1.29 percent in December. The ChristiNacho Doce/Reuters

Open-outcry wheat traders work on the floor of the Kansas City Board of Trade in 2008. Dave Kaup/Reuters/File

Field hands cut, trim, package, and box the lettuce in the fields. The Nunes Company distributes produce under the Foxy label. Tony Avelar /The Christian Science Monitor

Distributors at the Chelsea Wholesale Market in Chelsea, Mass., receive food products from farms in places like California and Florida as well as the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The distributors supply clients from small grocers to restaurant chains with daily orders of food and produce. Eaton & Eustis Company president, Anthony Sharrino, takes orders from buyers at the company's produce stand and storage facility at the Chelsea market. Ann Hermes/Staff

A Thai fisherman catches freshwater white tilapia fish at a fish farm in Samut Prakarn province, June 2012. Thailand's export-reliant economy has been hit by weak global demand just as it restores manufacturing capacity affected by last year's devastating floods, with several senior officials warning about a possibly sharper export slowdown. Sukree Sukplang/Reuters

An employee of Czech center of national reference laboratories prepares samples of vegetables for molecular testing on EHEC bacteria (bacterium Escherichia coli.) in Brno June 1, 2011. Samples of vegetables imported from various countries are tested for E.Coli at the laboratory. David W Cerny/Reuters

A man looks at food displayed inside a glass cabinet at a market in Mataro, near Barcelona, Spain, Jan. 1, 2013. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A couple stands in line at McDonald's in New York's Times Square, July, 2012. McDonald's Corp posted its worst quarterly restaurant sales growth performance in nine years, lifting the curtain on the fast-food industry's ruthless fight for customers in a weak economy. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

A farmer sorts rice seedlings in Gowa district, in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province February, 2013. A new food law in Indonesia will require traders of food staples such as soybeans, sugar and rice to regularly report stock levels to the government or face sanctions for hoarding according to an influential lawmaker said. Yusuf Ahmad/Reuters

A sales assistant arranges cuts of imported meat in a delicatessen in St.Petersburg February 8, 2013. Russia has warned it might soon bar imports of US and Canadian beef and pork if producers do not certify them free of the feed additive ractopamine. Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters

People line up to buy eggs at $20 a kilogram ($1.5 dollars) at a program promoted by the government of the capital inside a trailer at Arbolillo neighbourhood in Mexico City, August, 2012. Mexico said it will drop tariffs on egg imports in an effort to halt steep price increases, which are hurting consumers' wallets and adding to inflation. Edgard Garrido/Reuters

Bags of onions stacked on a loading dock await packing for delivery by truck to a major supermarket chain in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Ann Hermes/Staff

A woman sells skinned pawpaw, papaya, as she walks in a market on World Food Day in Lagos, Nigeria, Oct. 16, 2012. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization is marking World Food Day, a day dedicated to highlighting the importance of global food security. The FAO said hunger is declining in Asia and Latin America but is rising in Africa. One in eight people around the world goes to bed hungry every night. (AP Photo/) Sunday Alamba/AP